Rune Factoryseries has been around for years, but back when the first game was released, it was considered a novel concept. It combined the elements of farming simulation and RPG to attract a wider population that loved both genres. Even now, it continues to appeal to many, with more and more features added in every entry.
There are many games inspired by it, but they lack the charm of the original franchise, and it continues to improve and evolve into a better version of itself with every new title. The gameplay has had a couple of improvements over the years, but we have also seen some features removed as part of its evolution.
10Less Focus On Farming
The first Rune Factory game focused a lot ondeveloping your farm. To advance through the plot, you would need to grow specific crops to unlock the dungeons. This diminished from Rune Factory 4, and farming became completely optional. Conventional farming is absent in the Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, and your monsters are the ones automatically working on your crops.
Furthermore, crops do not require seasons to grow, like the first three games in the series. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma features mechanics similar to those of a city builder rather than a farming game. There are still many more crops to grow, but you can explore them in your own time for cooking and other purposes.
Farming may not have remained the main focus, but we still see interesting gimmicks like the introduction of Starfall crops in Rune Factory 5.
9Addition Of Female Protagonists
In the first three mainline Rune Factory games, you played as a male character. You were also onlyallowed to get marriedto the female members of the relevant towns. However, for the second half of Rune Factory 2, you could play as a female or male child of the previous protagonist.
In Rune Factory 4 and above, you could select a female protagonist if you preferred, which also opened the door to date male characters in the game. You could also change into a male or a female protagonist anytime after progressing through the story. In Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, you could play as the female protagonist during the post-game.
8More Production Monsters
Since the first game, you can keep whatever Monsters you befriended. All of them could be taken for combat, but only a few of them produced materials. This leads you to constantly grind in the dungeons to get the resources you need to craft essential weapons, accessories, and tools.
Earlier Rune Factory games had only milk, wool, eggs, and honey production monsters. More options were added to Rune Factory 3. You could even keep Silver Wolves, Goblins, Fairies, Spiders, and many other monsters to produce some basic essential materials.
You also needed tools to get products from the Monsters, but in later games, the Monsters drop products automatically.
7Character Introduction Animations
Meeting the potential candidates for your marriage during the first three Rune Factory games wasn’t as impactful as it was in later games. After all, they weren’t as flashy as the introduction animations that we started seeing since the fourth installment in the series.
The characters in Rune Factory are unique and eccentric. The animations introduced their core personalities by animating what defines them for a few seconds. This helped many players fall in love at first sight, as these cutscenes provided a detailed look at every potential partner.
In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, these animations are in 3D style and include the name cards of these characters.
6Learning Recipes And Crafting
The first Rune Factor game included recipe books if you wanted to learn more recipes. However, there was room for experimentation as well, as you could mix up random ingredients to try to make something new.
The recipe book is replaced by recipe breads from Rune Factory 3, and this continues in future games as well. However, you can no longer mix random ingredients in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. To make anything new, you will need to obtain recipes that are scattered across statues.
5Adding More Difficulty Options
The Rune Factory series had only two difficulty levels, namely ‘Normal’ and ‘Hard’, for a couple of generations. But things changed for Nintendo Switch. When Rune Factory 4 was remastered as Rune Factory 4 Special, it had a new ‘Hell’ difficulty for players who loved to challenge themselves further.
If you like the combat aspect of the game more, you should definitely choose it to fight even stronger enemies. You will need to prepare much more and consider the weaknesses of the enemies you are battling. This mode was not carried over to Rune Factory 5 and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, but we had three difficulty options: easy, balanced, and hard.
4Playing A Vital Role For The Townsfolk
Playing a saviour is a noble deed, and you are exactly that until new features are introduced in Rune Factory 4 and future games. In Rune Factory 4, you also assume your role as a princess, and you have the authority to decide festival dates or unlock new facilities for yourself by issuing directives.
In Rune Factory 5, you are a ranger working for the betterment of the townsfolk and helping them in their troubles. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma takes it to the next level, where you are a village chief in charge of developing Azuma from scratch bymaking new buildings and facilities.
3More Story Depth
The first Rune Factory game had a fairly straightforward story about good versus evil, and the protagonist’s attempts to save everyone from a dangerous dragon and an evil army. Rune Factory 2 had much more emotional depth as it involves the ties of families, and also taking care of your loved ones.
This improved further in Rune Factory 3, where you worked for a noble cause of fixing the bad relations between humans and monsters. Rune Factory 4 is a tear-jerker as it explores the concept of friendship. Rune Factory 5 also developed a complex story, although it felt somewhat shallow compared to the previous entry. However, the game does a better job of adding depth to romance and character interactions.
2RP Recovery
RP was recovered through various simple tasks, including eating food, taking baths, or collecting runes. Once you are exhausted, you need to rest up to recover it completely. This greatly limited your actions, so these issues were rectified in future games.
Proof of Wisdom is an accessory that regenerates RP regularly, which helps while exploring long dungeons. You could also cut blue flowers to regain some HP while you are away from home.
1Enhanced Visuals
The first Rune Factory was a two-dimensional open-world game. There was a lot to explore, even when the story didn’t lead you to those far places yet. We saw this particular style until the fourth mainline game in the series. However, the spin-offs released on the Nintendo Wii during the same generation were 3D and featured much more enhanced graphics.
The developers remastered Rune Factory 3 and Rune Factory 4, enhancing the graphics while maintaining the original art style. This was changed in Rune Factory 5 completely, as we now had 3D character sprites. The open world became much larger, which also made exploration much more immersive.
